hard primers on cheap american eagle .223?

[alloyguitar]

I bought a few boxes of .223 at walmart before going to tennessee on a weekend vacation.

In 40 rounds I had 4 failures to fire due to what appears to be a hard primer. The primer strikes were roughly half as deep on the failures as the ones that'd fired. I'd shoot a photo of the two side by side, but I gave all the brass to a friend that reloads.

We also ran though maybe 80 or so rounds of lake city and some winchester brass reloads (I don't know the specs on those, though) with no failures in any of those.

Is this a common problem? It happened with ammunition out of both boxes, but I'm sure they were from the same lot.

 

[sloughfoot]

I don't know of any primer cup that is so hard that it can withstand the impact of a firing pin. They are all soft malleable metal, some are just slightly harder than others.

Two things can cause this, primers not fully seated in the case, or the cartridge case sized too short. I would suspect primers not fully seated.

Did you hit them again and they went off? That is what I would do. If you get a indentation and they don't make a loud noise, then the primers are just faulty. You could then send the defective cartridges back for replacement in the box.

This is how ammunition recalls are generated. The manufacturer can't possible know about failures unless enough people send defective ammo back to them in the original boxes.

 

[alloyguitar]

Good info. I appreciate it.

I did try to hit one twice, and nothing happened. The shallow primer hits, even after the second try, made me curious.

I do still have one of the dud cases. Is there a way I can measure/test to be sure?

 

[acelungger]

Up until 3 weeks ago, I had never seen a hard primer! A friend of mine and myself went to the range one Sat. here a few weeks back, and I allways have to supply the ammo, anyway he was shooting the XD I sold him and when I was loading those 45acp I grabed a 100 of Mag tec primers, when the bin on the side of my 550 gets full I just dump it into a small box and keep loading untill my back tells me to stop!! Any way we just took the box of ammo and there were some of the Mag Tec primed rounds mix in there, and his striker fire XD wouldn't make them go bag!
Greg

 

[snapping turtle]

The 223 if the round is undersized can look like a light primer strike. I have also seen this in 35 rem in lever actions. under min lenght by a bit.....

 

[alloyguitar]

Interesting. I'll pull out one of my calipers and measure the case and see what I come up with.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I have shot a lot of AE223 and have never had an issue with it.

 

[billybob44]

The 223 if the round is undersized can look like a light primer strike. I have also seen this in 35 rem in lever actions. under min length by a bit.....

J, length should have no bearing on primer strikes on a .35 Remington, due to it being a rimmed cartridge==Head spaces on the rim-like 30-30, .22 Hornet, 25-20, etc.?? Bill..

 

[bulletbaron]

I am pretty sure that a 35 Remington is not a "Rimmed" casing, I will check at the shop in the morning.

Don't have to, from Wikipedia........................

The .35 Remington is the only remaining cartridge from Remington's lineup of medium power rimless cartridges still in commercial production. Introduced in 1906, it was originally chambered for the Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle in 1908.